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We continue to talk while the children swim, switching from wolf to human, then human to wolf. Though I’ve seen Thorny, Keenan and Pinky shift, it never stops being an awesome experience.
“Vanessa, come swim!” Ebony demands after shifting to human form. She takes hold of my hand and pulls me up.
I smile gently at her, shaking my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring a bathing suit with me.”
“A what?” she asks, continuing to tug. She’s strong for a five-year-old and I nearly go tumbling into the water with her.
“Ebony, leave her alone,” Sarina says lazily from where she’s sunbathing on the cloak.
Winter, still in his wolf form, races out of the water and shakes in front of me, then gives me a big blue-eyed stare. I laugh. They truly are hard to resist, but I still have too many silly human sensibilities to strip down in front of two children and a woman I met only a few hours ago.
I’m about to reiterate gently but firmly my ‘no’ when Winter excitedly nips at my fingers, catching one of them with his sharp teeth.
“Ouch!” I yank my finger out of his mouth and hold it up for inspection.
Two puncture marks from where his incisors sank through my flesh begin to well with blood. I turn to ask Sarina if she can take me back to the castle so I can grab a Band-Aid, but her stricken expression stops me cold. “Are you alright?”
She stares at my bloody finger, her face paling, her expression crumpling into panic. I’m about to reassure her that I’ll be fine once I rinse and dress the wound, but she lets out an ear-piercing shriek.
“Help!” She leaps to her feet. “Someone help! Oh my god, there’s blood! We’ve killed her, we killed Keenan’s mate!”
She rushes away, screaming.
Glancing down at her bewildered children, one human and one wolf, I say, “I don’t think your mother has ever seen a human bleed before.”
Chapter 17
House of Shadows
VANESSA
“Way bigger than a lake! Bigger even than that mountain over there.” I point at the mountain range surrounding the city of Wolf-Haven on two sides.
“No way!” Ebony says, her small hand in mine, her feet skipping as she picks her way on the path.
“Way,” I insist. “And I live right next to the largest one on the planet.”
I keep an eye on Winter who rushes ahead to attack a hapless tree branch before falling backwards onto the trail. He leaps to his feet, shakes the pine needles from his fur and races ahead.
“Can I see the ocean, too?” she asks, looking up at me with such sweet longing I nearly promise to take her home with me.
I’m about to tell her she can come visit if her parents say it’s okay, when I’m interrupted by two white wolves, a smaller one with a black patch over the ear, and a huge one with familiar yellow eyes. It takes me a moment to realize one is Sarina and the other is Keenan. It strikes me that the pair look stunning. I wonder what his other brothers look like in wolf form.
I don’t have to wonder long as two more wolves join us. I can’t be sure, but I think they’re probably Lock and Rush. One is black and the other is rust coloured.
Sarina paces in front of me, whining before nudging my arm with her snout.
“Sarina! What a fuss for nothing,” I scold her. “I’m perfectly fine.”
She shifts to human, her expression anguished as she seizes my finger. “You were bitten! There was blood!”
I pull my finger out of her grip. “Yes, people do tend to bleed when cut, but it was just a small nip, nothing big.”
Winter, still in his wolf form, whines guiltily and licks my ankle.
I reach down to caress his ears, “You did nothing wrong. We played a little rougher than I’m used to.”
Ebony tugs on my hand. “You’ll be okay?”
